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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!uwm.edu!news.alpha.net!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!rcarter From: rcarter@netcom.com (Russell Carter) Subject: Re: Why *BSD's have smaller user base ? [WAS: Can we quit with "Linux Sucks" ?] Message-ID: <rcarterCzBL89.KrH@netcom.com> Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) References: <3a9205$bqj@mall.sinica.edu.tw> <BENJY.94Nov15074901@blackjack.ai.mit.edu> <JKH.94Nov15045849@freefall.cdrom.com> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 17:43:20 GMT Lines: 69 In article <JKH.94Nov15045849@freefall.cdrom.com>, Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@freefall.cdrom.com> wrote: >In article <BENJY.94Nov15074901@blackjack.ai.mit.edu> benjy@ai.mit.edu (Benjamin B. Thomas) writes: > > 1) Linux is much easier to install. You just pop in the disks and you > have binaries for not only the system, but every program you would ever > want to run. *BSD people seem to have the attitude that it is so easy to > compile it yourself, why waste space on precompiled binaries of programs > like ghostview, xdaliclock, etc. > [snip] *This* newbie sys admin has never had trouble following the instructions during the FreeBSD installation. I'm using ample hardware, and I'm not afraid to start over, but I don't really see what the problem is, er was. I've watched a few linux installations botched lately BTW. And building from source code is *good*. It's *good* to build your own apps. It's wonderful to be able fix hard coded paths... I've wondered if one of the reasons there is a market for multiple linux distributions is the need for someone to figure out how to build stuff, given a particular linux incarnation. > > 2) Linux has very good postscript documentation. Sure there are plenty > of books which cover *BSD just fine, but even if new users knew this > lots of folks would rather just print it out. > >Linux has us here, but we're certainly working on this. > I don't really understand this. The recent 4.4BSD USENIX and O'Reilly & Associates manuals are professional and complete. Maybe the fact that they're not free is a problem? It's got to cost something to print out several thousand pages of postscript. Whenever I need to get a really basic, not necessarily uptodate even for linux, intro to something I read the linux HOWTOs. Then I might read the longer sections in the Linux Bible, but these are even more out of date. And then, once I know what I need, I go buy a real book that has the specifics about BSD. That's pretty good docs, IMHO. > 3) Linux people seem to be rabid evangalists; They push their OS very > hard. From taking the time to put together and advertise easy install > distributions to forming an international Linux consortium, they beat > *BSD hands down on the PR front. *BSD seems to take the approach of "If > we build it, they will come." > >Again, not all of us. Do you know how many free CDs I sent out (at >great personal time, effort and some cost) when 1.1 was being closed >down? Thousands. Do you think it was easy or fun? No. I did it >strictly for the PR benefits, and I do many many other things in a >similar vein. One person against thousands? Benjamin is right on target here. There is this thing called market presence that the linux people have got figured out, and it is too bad but that is the way life works, even for free software. There are linux systems at Supercomputing '94, and there is a full day dedicated to linux at Open Systems World a couple of weeks later. I can go to a linux user group every month in the Bay Area, and that sort of thing is cropping up all over. You know, this sure looks like a big bad Bill vs. cool gadgets Gary sort of situation. (and NO, linus != bill) Well, back to my terrific FreeBSD system, Russell